Lexical ambiguity is when a sentence or a word can have more than one sense and can be referred to varies thing. In the English language there is no lexical ambiguity within the words turtle, tortoise, butterfly, moth, melon, honeydew, and cantaloupe all these things refer to different things individually. But not all languages have specific words for certain things for example when taking a closer look into the Spanish language the words like turtle and tortoise have the same sense and denotation and it is referred to as a “Tortuga” which means turtle which brings Lexical ambiguity into play. The word” Tortuga” in Spanish refers to both a tortoise and a turtle which makes the word tortuga ambiguous. In English the distinction between turtle and tortoise is a turtle are adapted for life and water and a tortoise is a kind a turtle that is primarily on land than in water thus making them different from one another . In English there is distinctions between many things but how does the those who speak Spanish tell the difference between the lexical ambiguities of the words that share more than one sense. I will be looking at varies Spanish speaking countries to see if there are any distinguishes between the words turtle, tortoise, butterfly, moth, melon, honeydew, and cantaloupe. In order to figure out the distinction between the words turtle, tortoise, butterfly, moth, melon, honeydew, and cantaloupe in different Spanish speaking countries I will be doing a survey asking Spanish speakers to name the picture presented to them in Spanish and see if any of them have different distinctions between the pictures presented to them.


